Crayons & Cuties In Kindergarten: Recipes

Showing posts with label Recipes. Show all posts

Thursday, December 31, 2015

Annual New Year Project and New Year SLIME!

With just a few hours to spare, my boys and I completed our annual New Years projects:

This is our 3rd year completing these projects!

You can find our first year (2014) here, and then the 'how to' on our 2015 post!

It is AMAZING to me to see the difference in their writing, prints and size in those 3 short years!

They keep these posters in their room all year- and then I take the old one down and replace it with the new one and add the old one to their 'memory boxes' that I have in our basement.

If you'd like to make them, you can find the labels here:

As you will read in the 'how to' post, you don't need to print them on labels. They can be printed on paper and cut/glued. I personally find peeling/sticking to be easier!

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We'll be spending a quiet evening at home celebrating the New Year as a family this year. My husband is on standby for his job so he can't go far from home and has to be ready as soon as a call comes in.

So to make it a bit more special, we made this 'New Years Slime' to play with as we wait for the ball to drop!

I found the recipe via this pin:

from Little Bins for Little Hands

It was called 'winter slime'- and she has recipes for all different types of slime too- but we added extra glitter and glitz to call it 'New Years Slime!'

So we collected all of our supplies:

Clear glue (Michaels), Liquid Starch (Grocery Store), Water, Glitter, Sequins & Confetti (Michaels).

Some of the confetti was even 70% off as it was with the Christmas products!

The recipe calls for 1/2c. glue mixed with 1/2c. water.

Stir it really well.

Add glitter, sequins, confetti, etc. You can add food coloring too, but we had so much glitter we didn't need any coloring!

In another bowl measure 1/2c. liquid starch.

SLOWLY add the glue mix to the starch mix.

Mix with a spoon and then start mixing the remainder of the 'excess liquid' with your hands until all of the liquid is absorbed.

And then it was time to PLAY!

The more you played with it the 'bouncier' it became.

You can 'chop' it, stretch it, bounce it and leave it be and it will completely flatten!

As you can see it is totally winter break when you are still in PJs way later into the afternoon!

We let our slime sit on trays and it flattened and filled the space and we also found out it got COLD as it sat!

The recipe states it is good for about a week!

I know it is something I am going to bring into my kindergarten classroom during our winter unit too!

(the red 'sticks' are stirrers we 'borrowed' from 7-11)

We doubled the recipe and each got a good size 'tray' full of slime!

We are off to make our 2016 glasses and hats before it's time to ring in the new year!

Wishing you a safe and happy holiday!

Until next post...next year...

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Gift Crafty for Gift Giving...and...It's Almost ELF Time!!!

I am so thankful for this weekend...it gave me time to....

prepare and finish Thanksgiving gifts for my sons' school friends!

I always like the boys to give their friends a little gift each holiday- not just Christmas. I didn't want to overload them with candy after we just escaped the MOUNDS of Halloween candy, so I decided on play dough...ok...my original idea was those cute 'Turkey Toes' you see on Pinterest, but since I didn't plan far enough in advance and buy the harvest corn in August when it came out, there was NONE to be found!

These were actually VERY easy to make!

Step 1: Gather supplies!

I used the 'medium' size play doh containers. I used Educlips Build -A-Turkey clip art to make the printable and some tape!

(Did you see the 'hyperlink' on printable? YUP...I have it for you!!!)

Step 2: Make 2 tape rolls- one on lid and one on container

Step 3: Stick the turkey body on the tape.

Step 4: Center the feathers on the container

Step 5: Secure each side of the feathers with a piece of tape!

DONE! See....so easy!

I saved the boxes the dough came in for 'safe travel!'

They are packed in good and tight!

And about 1.5 hours later (start to finish including cutting) an entire 'flock' of 56 are ready to be delivered!

But my gifting didn't end there...I need to show the teachers, daycare providers and bus driver we are so THANKFUL for them too! I found these packs of Starbucks Hot Cooca in Christmas Tree Shoppe for $1.29 each. I whipped up a little tag and they are all set to go!

I still had some 'spare time'...and you know who will be arriving soon.....

Our Elf!!!

Check out my guest post on The Primary Pack (it goes live at midnight 11/24) which details how to make this adorable Elf Craftivity

You can download all the pieces to make him, along with an adoption certificate and Magic Elf Dust poem for FREE from my Teachers Pay Teachers store:

I LOVE having the elf do fun things around the house and leave things for the boys...and somewhere between doing laundry, dishes and cleaning this weekend, I thought of having the elf leave them 'Elf Hat Candy!'

Naturally I had to give it a try to see if my 'vision' would work...

So I gathered the supplies...

Hershey Kisses would be the 'hat' and they would be covered with some festive chocolate. I thought the candy wafers would work as the base, but they were too small, so I improvised...see below!

Unwrap the kisses (you can also 'cheat' and purchase the candy cane Hershey Kisses- throw them in a bowl or on a plate and call then Elf hats- I won't tell that there was another, more time consuming, way!)

Melt the chocolate- if it is too thick, add a touch of vegetable oil to make it thinner!

Press the kiss into the melted chocolate...

And to make them more festive, dip in sprinkles!

Be creative..there is no wrong way to make an elf hat candy!

Now to my improvise...I simply 'blobbed' chocolate onto waxed paper! Add a few sprinkles if you want!

Before the 'blobs' harden, drop the Hershey Kisses onto the blobs- WALAH! You have a hat!

You can add a 'blob' of chocolate to the top as a tip, but not necessary!

If you are in a rush, slide the wax paper onto a tray and put it in the fridge or freezer to harden. Otherwise you can leave them out to harden.

Once hardened, it is time to have your elf serve up a sweet treat:

And here is a close-up of one of the hats...HOW cute are they???!!!

As for me....I must now go hide the evidence! That pic of our elf Rudy was taken down in my basement on the sly...he doesn't make his appearance for another week.... he looked quite upset that I shoved him back in the box and covered him up with stockings and placemats! SORRY RUDY! I promise...it is almost time!!!!

Don't forget to download the elf craftivity!

I'd love to hear about some of your elf fun!!!

Until next post,

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Fall Favorites Blog Hop!

The air is crisp,

The leaves are falling!

Hello squirrels looking for food....Goodbye birds full of tweeting!

Apple, Pumpkins, Acorns & More...

31 Bloggers are bringing 'Fall Favorites' to your door!

Next to summer, Fall is definitely my favorite! I love the 'smell' and 'feel' of Fall! I love all the fun associated with Fall too! But there is one thing that signifies it is Fall...

It is my guilty pleasure...and thanks to Starbucks now posting the calories in this little cup of heaven, I only indulge in one each year- but Fall is not Fall without one!

But my pumpkin obsession does not end there!

I love making

pumpkin pancakes- and when my husband works late my boys and I love to have them for dinner!

And...thanks to all those lattes of Falls past, these little gems are my 'sweet treat' without the guilt

Pumpkin Muffins- 2 ingredients and only 2 points on Weight Watchers!

Simply mix 1 box of carrot (or spice) cake mix with 1 15oz can of pumpkin. If it is a little too thick add 2T of water. Bake in lined mini muffin pan (for 1 point muffins) or regular muffin tins (for 2 point muffins) in a 425 degree oven for 12-15 minutes (longer for the larger muffins- until the toothpick comes out clean). Allow to cool and store in an airtight container. I find they are even better the longer they sit!

So it probably wouldn't surprise you then that I LOVE to bring pumpkin fun into my kindergarten classroom!

This past week we 'carved' in! I am excited to show you all we learned- and the fun we had!

Here are my pumpkin books and resources I used this week:

And our 'Poem of the Week' was a simple one so that we could focus on some sight words, 1:1 reading, rhyming and initial sounds!

We started the week by exploring a pumpkin using our 5 senses. We carved it open to explore all of its parts (I don't have any pictures because I was covered in pulp!)! We even took the seeds out and I brought them home to roast. Most of them LOVED the roasted seeds!

We learned all about a pumpkin's life cycle through books and magazine resources. The children then helped me demonstrate by attaching pictures to a giant pumpkin:

We ended the week and our life cycle discussion by making life cycle crowns! It was a great way for them to demonstrate what they learned and will help spark some conversation at home too I'm sure!

In addition to the crowns, they worked with a few readers this week. We are really working on reading with 1:1 correspondence and using pictures to support the text.

These books then went into their Readers Workshop baskets for independent reading and sharing!

To piggyback that, they also read a simple repetitive text about the locations of pumpkins. This helped review what we had just finished in math!

For shared writing we made a list...

And for interactive writing we labeled the parts of a pumpkin!

I have always done the same project for students to show the parts of a pumpkin but wanted to change it up this year...I wanted something to show the outside AND inside of a pumpkin. So after a few botched up prototypes, this was born!

I have put all the steps into this graphic for you so that it is easier to reference- just pin it to your Fall craft board and you are all set!

When it came time to label, many of my students walked up to our class model to check their label to the class one!

Each pumpkin was unique! I had them cut the plate in half so I got some pretty interesting and almost 'life-like' representations of a 'carved' pumpkin!

So when we were all done we were able to show everyone what we had learned about the inside and outside of a pumpkin!

And needless to say, it made a great bulletin board display of ELA and Science learning!

(If we didn't have strict fire marshal/code rules I would have loved to have hung these from the ceiling so that both sides could be seen at the same time!)

So now that we had explored and really learned all about pumpkins it was time to...taste them!

A few years ago a colleague shared this recipe for 'Pumpkin Pie in a Bag'- her daughter's preschool had done it and she was able to snag a copy to share!

It is so much easier than attempting to make and/or purchase and serve a 'traditional' pumpkin pie!

I put it into this graphic for easy pinning:

One bit of advice...

The kids really LOVED smashing the crackers!

Next was to knead the pudding/milk mixture...

Then you open up the bag and add in the pumpkin...

And knead it some more!

You will know it is ready when your filling looks like this:

While the kids are kneading the mix, put 2T of crackers into each cup

Next you snip the corner off the bag and squeeze some of the 'pie' into each cup

I had doubled the batch and it was perfect for my group of 19 (plus extra for some teachers!)

Add a squirt of Redi-Whip and you are set to go!

I sprinkled the tops with some pumpkin pie spice too!

The kids GOBBLED them up and were ready to take me down if I didn't give them seconds!

These cups were made for a kid, but it's also a perfect (and easy) treat to bring to a holiday gathering- just fill them up a tad more!

In addition to the craft idea and recipes, I have this 'Fly In the Pie' set of counting games for FREE! It has 3 different games to play using sets of pumpkins from 1-10 (Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah Designs recently posted sets of counting graphics- perfect for these types of activities!).

Directions and other suggestions for use and included in the free download!

Feedback is greatly appreciated!